Back to Basics: Your Coaching Bio, Done Right

Hello. So here at the Business of Executive Coaching podcast, We are in April 2025 and this month our theme is Back to Basics. This month is all about foundations and specifically we're going to dive into the all the fundamentals, or some of the fundamentals I should say, that you need to have in place that is going to make everything in your business go more smoothly. They are some of this part of it is things you need to think about and decide. Some of are tools you need to have in place or assets, but all of them are really crucial building blocks that you need for other parts of your business. Like always, we're going to be super practical with this series. I want every episode this month to give you some tips that will make your business better, your life easier, and your impact greater. So what we're going to cover is identifying your ideal clients, defining your offers, building your coach bio, and creating your sales pipeline. So while we can't go into detail on exactly how to do those things, I'm going to give you high levels, some thoughts, things you need to consider, and things that you should put in place in order to really support a flourishing business. I encourage you to keep coming back this month for all of the episodes or go back to prior episodes if you've missed some, because all of these foundations build on each other, so they all matter and they all flow somewhat sequentially. So who is this series for? This series is for you if you are just starting out in your coaching business. And it is for you if you have been in business for a while, but you have a sense that there are some steps along the way that you might have missed and you feel like there could be some merit in spending a bit of time going back to the basics. I want to be clear when I say basics that I don't mean oversimplifying business growth with a trite five steps.

To success kind of plan.

Absolutely not. I mean, let's take a look at some of the foundations and then, then you can apply those in the context of your business, which is where a lot of the complexity comes in. I would also like to make an invitation and an offer to you today. If you're in a place where you want to set up your business foundations with structure and support so you can do it quicker and without reinventing the wheel. Or if you want my eyes on your business, your assets, and to give you practical advice on your specific context, I want to invite you to join the Corporate to Coach accelerator, which is the only way that I currently work.

Hands on with coaches.

So the accelerator is a 12 month right? So we're going to get to know each other really well. A 12 month program that helps you to build a plan to get to your next 10 corporate clients with less than 5 hours of marketing per week within an incredible community of coaches. The accelerator is the place to come if you want a regular place to get coached on your business needs, wherever you're at in your business growth cycle. And we have weekly group coaches group coaching calls at three different time zones so you can always have a chance to ask questions. It's also the place to come if you want a structure to put in place to help you with business fundamentals, business setup and business growth, specifically in the corporate or leadership or executive coaching space. So we have three standalone courses so pieces of curriculum that help us with all of this. So we have the Corporate to coach Blueprint which is a 36 lesson 8 module digital course. We have the 90 day quick start Challenge where you set up all of the foundations of your business in 90 days and you can get feedback on.

All of your assets as you develop them.

And we also have the Business Development Accelerator where we put in place the processes and disciplines to get your next 10 corporate clients. It's also the place to come if you want to check that what you are doing is best practice so you can benchmark with other members. I offer video reviews and feedback on all of your assets, things like your bio, your website, your LinkedIn profile, your.

Offers and so much more.

The accelerator is also the place to come to be part of a group of people who are in the same place and who have the same ambitions as you. So business ownership can be really lonely and having a weekly connection point with.

Peers is really incredible.

There is so much more inside the accelerator thing. Tools, templates, masterclasses, guest interviews. We even have a private podcast feed with all of our group coaching calls so you don't miss any gems that happen on the calls that you don't attend. So my invitation is to join us inside the Accelerator in April and my offer to help make this an absolute no brainer is to start with a.

No commitment one on one coaching call.

With me where we can identify one of your business foundations so I can give you some live feedback on it. Or we can identify the foundations of your business growth plan. So we'll make sure that no matter where you're at in this call with me, we'll make it valuable and we'll make sure you walk away with some really practical and tangible advice. We can also discuss whether the accelerator would be a good fit for you. In my experience, most people that I.

Speak to are a good fit.

There aren't a lot of people listening to such a specific podcast that aren't.

In the right category, and many who.

I meet go on to join the accelerator. And specifically, if you're curious, about 85% of the people that I meet with decide that joining the accelerator would be a great move for them. So if you do decide to join, after booking a call with me during April, I have a special offer for all my podcast listeners which is one.

Month free on your membership, which means.

That you would join for 12 months, but you get full access to coaching reviews, everything for 13 months rather than 12. So if you think this sounds like it'd be interesting to you, please head to the Show Notes and book a call directly. Or head over to LinkedIn, tell me you came from the podcast and we can book it in directly there. I really look forward to meeting you soon and talking about my very favorite thing, which is, and I'm not sure this is surprising given how much I talk on this podcast, but my favorite thing is talking about you and your businesses. So let's dive in now. Hello and welcome back. So today I want to talk to.

You about your most fundamental coaching asset, and that is your coaching bio. So as an executive coach and a coaching business owner, there are a lot of things that you need, right? So you need to be clear about your ideal clients, you need to be clear on your offers, you need a great LinkedIn profile, you need a great website. But you could almost get away with not having any of those if you have a really good coaching bio. So I really encourage you to spend some time working on this core document, and I want to let you know upfront. As a special bonus, if you book a call with me this week to.

Discuss your business, your coaching bio, your.

Assets, whether the accelerator would be a.

Good fit for you.

I'd be really happy to send you my coaching bio as a template that.

You can adapt to your business. So I'm happy for you to use.

That format in your business. So you can book a call through the link in the show notes or send me a message on LinkedIn. Okay, so why do I say that this seemingly very simple one page document is so important? The truth is, it's important because unlike your website, which people may or may not visit, your bio is shared actively and directly with coaching decision makers, right?

So that could be folks in hr.

Hiring managers, business leaders, potential coaches, Managers of potential coaches, and it serves as a first impression when you're not in the room, it is your proxy, right? So whereas you are not in there meeting all of these individual stakeholders, your bio is being forwarded around and people are making judgments of you based on their impression of this document. And it can have a life beyond the opportunity that you're engaged in as well. It can be a document that is saved in organizations, is forwarded to other people, is, you know, circulated far and wide. You cannot know where your bio might go. So it can build credibility, it can demonstrate your experience, it can position you clearly in the way that you want to be positioned. A well crafted bio can open doors to new coaching engagements, to panel opportunities, to speaking gigs, referrals, much more. It's vital. I hope I have convinced you of that.

So today in this podcast, I want.

To go through a series of tips and things to think about when you write your coach bio. So the first thing I want to say, it's partly a do, right? So it's what to include, but it's also a don't, because so many people don't go deep enough into this. But what you need to do is you need to really highlight your professional background. So as I mentioned, I often give people feedback that they underdo their professional background. And especially for new coaches, newer coaches, this is vital. And the reason I think people hesitate to include too much about their professional background is because they think they need to be positioning themselves purely as a coach. Right. And that any reference to their past experience somehow detracts from their credibility as a coach. That could not be further from the truth. In fact, it is your professional background that is going to get you opportunities, particularly from organizations or individuals where that background you have is viewed in a positive light, whether they have respect for your expertise, your way you've worked, the industries you've worked in, that is going to make you more credible as a coach, not less. And the I think underneath this is that as coach, we know that coaching is context agnostic. So we can coach anyone. We don't need to know all of the intricacies of their industry. So coaching is agnostic, context agnostic, selling is not context agnostic. Selling is all about the belief in your credibility and your ability to articulate value to people. Right? So the people you're selling to need to view you as credible. And one of the big ways that they will do that is by reference to your professional background in addition to your coaching background. So, for example, that might look like in A commercial organization. Right. They're reviewing coach bios. If they see that you have a significant professional background in a commercial or a sales role, they are going to highly weight that and view that as particularly significant compared to a coach who does not have that background, for example. Right.

And so I think I've spoken about.

This on the podcast before, but think about it as almost a seesaw. Right? It's a seesaw or it's a set of scales. And depending on your experience, your professional background and your coaching experience will be weighted more heavily in the start. When you don't have as much coaching experience, you don't have as many client names that you can list off. Your professional background is going to be the thing that you leverage in order to build credibility. As you build your coaching experience, that will overtake your professional background and that will be the credibility that you leverage. But in your coach bio, if you are newer, then make sure you are really sharing a lot about your professional background. Now this doesn't mean it should be your resume. I don't want it to be I did this, then I did this, then I did this. What I want you to do is create a sense of sharing your relevant experience from your professional background and the big ticket wins or challenges or experiences that you had. So for example, you would talk about your experience as a leader, right? So has led team, you know, large teams, has worked with, you know, worked with leaders in this capacity. So things that are related to coaching, things that join the dots between your professional experience and your coaching practice. Okay. So yes, don't forget to highlight your professional background. Similarly. Right. This is a sales document. Right. So a coaching bio is a sales document of sorts of, but it is different to other sales documents like your website. So while you want to share what you do currently. Right. So you would say high level, something like Ellie is a coach and facilitator working with leaders and teams in XYZ sectors. You don't want to make it another version of your services page and list your offers in great detail. So the purpose of this document is to build your professional credibility, not to share the details of what you do.

So I come across a lot of.

Bios that I review and they really have most of it is like your services page listing out what you do. It's not talking about what you've done. And so in your bio you need to be talking about what you've done. And you know, I want you to talk a little bit about your coaching style as well. But mostly I want it to be you just stacking up experience, relevant experience, credentials and experience. Rather than listing out all the things you do, you will have different places and different formats in which you do that. And in fact, some people prefer to have a two pager, right? They have their bio, which is the credibility building piece and on the back they have like a services page. That's okay, go for it. I don't think you need it in a coach bio. I personally like to keep it clean.

But that is possible as well.

Another tip is that using social proof can be really powerful. What do I mean by social proof? By social proof I mean listing who you've worked with and that includes who you've worked for, right? So in your coach bio you don't have to differentiate whether your experience came as an employee or as a, you know, a business owner. But who have you worked for, what projects have you been involved in, what clients do you have? And I feel like it's quite different. So some people talk about putting in logos of clients on your website and there's a lot of contention about this. I've never done that because I wanted my clients to feel like there was a level of confidentiality and I extended that beyond just the coaching engagement into my business practice generally. Now I'm thinking about that. I'm rethinking. Lots of people do include logos. So, you know, I prefer I would ask permission before I did that. Others say you don't need to, but you, I think in a private document like a coaching bio. So not something that is sitting on your website. I think you can feel comfortable listing out organizations you've worked with.

Some people choose to say I have.

Coached individuals who have worked at organizations, including. And the list. So that it is, you know, there's no, you're not saying that they're necessarily a client. You're saying your clients have worked, your coaches have worked at certain organizations, but you don't need to do that. The other thing I think you need to do is be aware that just like how people scan resumes, people scan coach bios, usually looking for their personal hot buttons, right? So if, for example, I am an HR leader and I work in a professional services firm and I want a coach for a new partner, I'm going to be scanning, looking for certain words, right? New partners. I might look for, you know, the obvious ones like partnership transition, new partner development, professional services, right? So I'm going to look to check those boxes and if I see them, I might not even read too much. I'll just Be like, yep, looks good. But I also might look for things like, well, what are the big challenges of new partners? Usually it is, you know, generating business commerciality, leadership, team building, you know, operating in complex political environments. Right. So you might sort of have something that says, you know, Ellie has worked with professional services partners around with, you know, in a certain range of, of topics or subject matter. So I think it is worth doing that because, you know, people are really often skim reading and so giving them what they want, giving them what they need in order to be able to give you a green light is really important. I also think it's good to show your approach and show your personality. And the way I do that is not over the top, but by including a paragraph. And generally I put these towards the end, the bottom of the document, a paragraph on your style as a coach and your approach as a coach. Generally this is things like the perspectives that you use. You know, for example, you might be.

Have.

Have a positive psychology lens, you might take a developmental approach, you might have a neuroscience focus. Whatever those things are, I think they're good. And then sort of, you know, maybe something about your beliefs about coaching or your, your take. And I think mine says something like that I like to challenge with the foundation of deep empathy. Right. That's really sort of sums up who I am. I'm going to chall there's going to be that unconditional positive regard in there. Although I wouldn't say unconditional positive regard in a document because that's coach terminology. So I put that into language that makes sense for them. And so that leads on to my next tip, which is you need to tailor your language and tone to the audience that you're trying to attract. Right? So remove technical coaching terminology. Remove buzzwords as coaches. Right. This is sort of. So let's separate those out, actually. So tailor your language. The formality should be matching the client that you're seeking. Right. So more formal to more formal clients. Less formal if you want to work with people who come from less formal industries.

But you also need to be mindful.

Of having too much hyperbole, too many buzzwords, especially when you talk about your passion for coaching. Right. So we as coaches are so into it, we believe it, we're in it, and we use a lot of very specific language. So we talk about things like holding space and we talk about all sorts of things. You can think about them, but really.

Ask yourself, if someone who was not.

A coach read this document and read that sentence, would they roll their Eyes if they would, then you need to change it. So don't be too buzzwordy, don't be too generic or vague. That is also something that can, you know, talk about the synergies or the, you know, all of that. Avoid those sorts of things. Do consider also creating versions of your bio document. Now, this is not necessary, but when I was doing a lot of work with legal clients, for example, I had a version of my coach bio that was specifically dialed in for legal clients based on my legal experience. Like all the places I'd worked as a lawyer, my work in law firms, my coaching of lawyers, partners, legal teams in house legal teams, judiciary, you know, you name it. So all of those things. So I had a version and that, you know, that specificity because I was clear on my few ideal clients I could do that. And it was really compelling. Like there are not many panels that I was considered for that I was not chosen to be on because I ticked all their hot buttons, right? They knew I understood, understood the context, they knew I had the experience, and they knew from my language that I understood how to tailor my approach for that environment, right? So we want them to be easy for someone to say yes to our bio and that means giving them what information they need, not putting anything in there that's going to put them off, right? So with lawyers, if I was too touchy feely in my language, in fact I would usually say use language around, you know, cognitive language rather than feeling language in that bio, for example, I found that was more, more success.

Okay? So I hope those tips have helped.

Now, if you want to see my bio, get my template, for example, which we can give you in canva format or word format. Book a call in with me and.

We can talk all about your business.

Your business plans, your strategy, whether the accelerator could be a good fit for you, and even what you should include in your coach bio. So check it out in the show notes. Drop me a note on LinkedIn and.

We can organize that.

I'll see you time next next week. And I'm looking forward next week to talking about sales pipeline. See you then.